'70 Challenger, Driven Every Day

Scott Shanks never says no. Can he drive his ’70 Dodge Challenger on all 1,500 miles of Power Tour® and can we tag along? “Sure!”

2/18This ’70 Dodge Challenger with its 6.1L Hemi shows how aftermarket goodness turns old muscle into daily driver greatness, and so far that’s added up to about 12,000 miles. We rode and followed along as it made the Long Haul® during the ’12 HOT ROD Power Tour®.

Is it OK if he stands around for an hour in the middle of a street waiting for the rain to pass so we can take a photo of his car—on gravel? “Not a problem.”

Could he make another autocross pass, and then drag race a Viper, and finish up by turning his expensive 295/40R18 Falken RT615K tires into pavement puddles? “Absolutely.”

Of course, when you have a car that will take all that abuse, get 23 mpg, and look this good doing it, you might be inclined to drive it as often as possible, too. Scott and his copilot for the week, son-in-law James Rose, are expert road-trippers. They stop at every Route 66 sign and each scenic background as they weave through middle America with the top down and the soundtrack of a 6.1L Hemi burbling happily through 3-inch exhaust.

This is Scott’s second Power Tour® in the Challenger, and he’s doing it thanks to Royal Purple. Scott entered Royal Purple’s Performance Driving Experience contest, and the online fans of the synthetic oil manufacturer chose his car out of more than 300 entries on the company’s Facebook page. Winning the contest meant a Visa card for gas and VIP parking at the shows, so Scott was stoked to hit the road, and we got to ride along. As navigator, James claimed shotgun, which left us sharing the back seat with a tripod and some luggage. When Scott finally puts in the planned rollbar, we’ll have to ride in the trunk.

3/18The Challenger took more than 10 years to complete, and Scott moved the whole project from Kansas to Florida and back during the process. If you could see how happy he is behind the wheel, you’d understand why he went to the trouble. This could be the perfect daily driver.

Scott says the best parts of any road trip are the conversation along the way and the freedom to stop and explore. He and James keep a list of funny interactions with passersby, including that Mopar standard, “That thing got a Hemi?” Yes, that’s why it has the giant call-outs on the quarter-panels that say “Hemi.” You might have seen them.

As locals shouted dumb questions at Scott and James, we enjoyed the thrill of uninterrupted Michigan greenery rushing past. Being in Detroit in a ’70s ponycar, about to drive more than 1,000 miles—surely there’s no better way to express a love of the automobile. In general, the backseat of an E-body is no luxury ride, but we were impressed with the car’s stable road-going manners and ability to handle bumps and potholes along the way. Not only was the Dodge nimble but it was also quick. When we later bullied Scott on to the dragstrip—which didn’t require much convincing—the Challenger knocked off a low 13-second pass, and it was definitely traction-limited.

So what’s the secret? Why is Scott out there chirping tires across America while most rare muscle cars are entombed in car covers and garages like mummies on wheels? Obviously, it helps to be mechanically inclined. Scott learned how to wrench from his mechanic dad, and that certainly came in handy when he decided to turn his E-body in to a daily driver instead of a Sunday car. He says it’s all about building a car with reliability in mind and making use of all the advancements in aftermarket offerings. For this project, that meant a modern drivetrain instead of the carbureted big-block Scott initially planned for the Dodge, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Scott’s story started many Challenger projects ago. He’s owned more than 10 of the Dodge ponycars and says that, while he’s occasionally built other models, there’s just something about the long, low lines of the Challenger that speak to him. “I don’t like to be a ‘me-too’ guy,” Scott says. “I like the racing pedigree of the Chryslers, and I like the unique style of the Challenger. I even like it more than the ’Cuda, although that car is usually more popular.”

Preferences for E-bodies aside, Scott was actually building an A-body ’68 Barracuda drag car and browsing through the parts collection in a local Kansas drag racer’s yard when he spotted the drop-top Challenger in the back of the building where it was acting as a lounge area for a large Great Dane. “I asked the guy what his plans were for the Challenger,” Scott says, “and he said, ‘What, for the dog house?’ He was totally one of those I’m-a’gonna-fix-it-one-day guys.” Scott decided he could outwait the big dog, and over the next few years he regularly checked in with the Challenger’s owner until the need for a new race trailer finally trumped the man’s desire to keep the Dodge. Scott finally had the car.

Once he had the Challenger, an off-hand comment from his wife set him on the path to building a car he could really drive. “I’d had so many projects, and some were fast, and some were pretty but none were really, really good cars,” Scott says. “My wife looked at the Challenger and said, ‘Why don’t you just do one car right?’ If she had known what that would involve, she might not have suggested it!”

What “doing it right” meant to Scott was stripping the car completely, media-blasting the body, and sending it over to Universal Collision (UniversalCollision.com) in Tallahassee, Florida, for rust repairs, which included the usual Mopar rot areas: rear quarters, trunk, and a small patch panel in the floor.

While the Challenger was being sprayed with the eye-catching Viper Yellow paint, Scott had a lot of time to think about how to power the big Dodge. Initially, he’d planned to swap out the original 383 big-block for a 440 that he had already built, but a budding interest in handling performance—and the release of the Mopar Performance crate stroker 408—soon had him considering a small-block, and then a small-block with fuel injection. “I would just sit there, mentally plugging in different motors and combinations,” Scott says. “Right around the time the car was out of paint, a friend at a dealership got me a warranty-replacement 6.1L Hemi … this was before Chrysler offered the crate 6.1.”

With a decision made on the engine, the rest of the car started to fall in to place. Although all the small-block Mopar trans options can be fitted to a Gen III Hemi, Scott saw little point to running a modern engine with an original transmission, so he went to a Tremec T56 six-speed with a 0.50:1 overdrive. To fit the six-speed in the Challenger, the factory tunnel had to be widened 3 inches on the passenger side and raised 11⁄2 inches above. Scott also had to build a custom upper crossmember and lower transmission mount to lock in the larger Tremec, but you wouldn’t know from looking at it.

The suspension, rearend, and interior display similar uses of modern options to upgrade the original equipment. Scott ditched the Chrysler torsion-bar front suspension in favor of an adjustable coilover setup in the front and lowered leaf springs in the rear. In order to please all possible passengers, Scott kept the original seats for family drives, but can quickly swap them out for Scat racing buckets, which is what he chose for the competition-heavy Power Tour®. Scott’s focus during the Challenger build was on handling. The front end makes use of the Reilly Motorsports AlterKation kit, and Hotchkis lowered leaf springs keep the rear in line.

As we shouted tech questions over the rumble and the rush of the wind—the top was down, natch—we understood why Scott was so amenable to all our requests. The Challenger is fun to drive, and when a car is fun, every excuse to drive it is welcome.

5 Famous Dodge Challengers in Motorsports

Plymouth gets all the glory in ’70s Mopar racing history, but the ’Cuda wasn’t the only pony on the track.

Sam Posey’s #77 Trans Am Challenger: Dodge never saw much success in Trans-Am racing, but the cars looked great in T/A trim.

Dick Landy’s Pro Stock Challenger: When he wasn’t racing, factory-sponsored Landy headed the Dodge Performance Clinic program at Dodge dealerships across the country.

Leroy Goldstein’s Ramchargers Funny Car Challenger: You may not have heard of the “Israeli Rocket,” but Goldstein made the first funny car run in the sixes, despite his preference for dragsters.

Brock Yates’ Cannonball Run Challenger: Dan Gurney drove a Plymouth AAR Barracuda in Trans Am, but he did get behind the wheel of this Dodge coast-to-coast car in the early ’70s.

’71 Indy Pace Car Challenger: They can’t all be winners. Unfortunately for Dodge, the Challenger remains in the books as the first (and only) pace car to crash at the Indy 500.

4 Non-Dodge Challengers

Mickey Thompson’s land-speed Challenger streamliner: It made MT the first American to run 400 mph back in 1960.

The Intex Challenger: This one’s an inflatable boat!

Action Mobil Desert Challenger: Billed as the world’s best off-road RV. See ActionMobil.at/.

Damon Challenger motorhome: This even has a similar script to the Dodge, but you can sleep more comfortably inside.

10 Movie Challengers

Can’t get enough E-body action? Neither can the folks who cast movie cars. We could name 20 more films featuring Dodge’s ponycar.